The need for automatic management of the connectivity of the physical layer of a communication network including monitoring and mapping the connection patterns between data port in communication rooms is well known in the IT industry. Monitoring and mapping the physical connectivity of the network may require real-time identification of changes in interconnections between communication ports. For example, the physical layer may be arranged in an interconnect topology in which ports of the switch may be dynamically connected to ports of a patch panel by multi-conductor cables, also known as patch cords. Some existing solutions require the installation of add-on hardware over the front panel of the switch. In many cases, the high density of ports on the front panel may not enable usage on such add-on hardware or else an add-on device may cause mechanical interference so that replacement of patch cord would be difficult or impossible.
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